"Discovering Our Past Through
Historical Archaeology"
The Archaeological Education Program
Glynn County Schools, Georgia

 

Description:

The Archaeology Education Program is an exciting way for teachers to help students learn the required state quality core curriculum objectives through hands-on and innovative activities. This comprehensive curriculum based educational program combines many disciplines into one, where students practice and use their skills in science, language arts, social studies, and math while learning about archaeology and their local history. This program is a partnership between the Glynn County School System and the National Park Service at Fort Frederica National Monument. The Glynn County School Board incorporated the program into the school system's fourth grade curriculum in 1994.

Students become active participants in learning through this program. There is a curriculum guide for the education program. Once the students have completed background lessons in the classroom, they participate in an actual archaeological excavation, where they practice the skills they have learned. Students then spend a full day in the archaeology lab analyzing the artifacts. Lessons in the classroom, following their lab experience, will help the students use what they have learned to interpret the past.

Students who tend to struggle in other areas have an opportunity to succeed, since archaeology is a level playing field for all students. This program fosters a high degree of student interest and the students are enthusiastic learners.

Mission:

Through the study of archaeology, students learn facts and methods in science, language arts, social studies, and mathematics in a practical, hands-on approach. This program for fourth grade students teaches all aspects of historical archaeology from theory, to excavation, to artifact analysis and conservation, and to the interpretation of the past. This multidisciplinary approach enables students to learn about the importance of their historical and cultural resources. Fourth grade students are digging into the past and making history come alive. These students, as citizens, are becoming aware of the importance of preserving and protecting their local history.

 

Administration:

This program is part of the Glynn County Partners in Education Program and the successful National Park Foundation Parks As Classrooms Program.
The school system employs an Archaeology Education Coordinator, based at Oglethorpe Point Elementary School. The coordinator's responsibilities are to work with the classroom teachers, teach fourth grade students, supervise all work at the excavation site and the lab, and to coordinate the program with the staff at Fort Frederica National Monument. The Education Specialist at Fort Frederica also works closely with the program and helps to supervise activities at the archaeological site. Each fourth grade teacher must have attended a week-long workshop in the summer, which is provided by the school system and the National Park Service. This workshop allows the teachers to work and study with professionals from the field of archaeology and is a crucial element in the program.

Site Locations:

Students learn the fundamentals of archaeology, background, and historical information in their own classrooms, using the established curriculum. Once they have completed the objectives in the first two units of the curriculum, the students participate in a "mock" archaeological dig at Fort Frederica. The excavation site is a previously disturbed site of reburied artifacts from the 18th through the 20th centuries. After the field work the students participate in lab activities at the Archaeological Education Center located at Oglethorpe Point Elementary School. Students clean, classify, and identify artifacts with the use of specific tools and procedures. The lab was made possible by the grant from the National Park Foundation and is equipped with cleaning equipment, scales, electronic calipers, microscopes, an ultraviolet light, an electrolysis machine for conservation purposes and other items necessary for the proper analysis of the artifacts. Glynn County Schools Transportation Department facilitates the students' work at these two locations. After the field and lab work, the students participate in additional curriculum lessons in their classroom.

Scope:

The initial teacher's training workshop held in November of 1994. To date, 98 fourth grade teachers have participated in the yearly summer workshop. Approximately 140 students from Oglethorpe Point Elementary School piloted the program in 1995. Then the program was expanded to include other schools and classes, as additional teachers were trained. The program was fully implemented into the school system's fourth grade during the 1997-98 school year. Presently over 1,200 fourth grade students from the system's nine elementary schools and two local private schools participate in the education program each year.

Funding:

All funding for the establishment of the education program was donated.
The majority of the funding came from two non-profit groups dedicated to improving the educational programs of the National Park Service. A $40,000 grant came from the National Park Foundation's Parks As Classrooms program and $10,000 was donated from the Fort Frederica Association. Local organizations also provided some of the initial funding. Each year the Fort Frederica Association, which maintains a museum shop at Fort Frederica, dedicates some of the profits from the shop to purchase needed supplies for the education program. Funding for the teacher's workshop has been provided by the National Park Foundation and a Georgia Council for the Humanities Grant. Additional funding for materials was provided this past year by a school system educational grant for innovative programs. The school system's yearly cost for the program includes the bus transportation of the students and the employment of the Archaeology Education Coordinator.

Awards:

The education program has received both state and national recognition as an innovative educational approach. Fort Frederica National Monument and the Glynn County School System received the 1996 Georgia Education Partnership of the Year Award from the Georgia Association of Partners in Education, Inc. Ray Morris, Fort Frederica's Chief of Interpretation who was instrumental in the establishment of the program, was awarded the 1995 National Freeman Tilden Award. This award is the National Park Service's highest honor given to an employee involved in creating outstanding programs that educated the public. The education program also received the 1995-96 Optimist Club's Outstanding Project Award, second place in international competition. This is an example of the excellent work that is possible when historic sites and schools collaborate to develop innovative, resource based education programs.

 

For more information, please contact:

Ellen Provenzano
Glynn County Schools Archaeology Education Coordinator
Oglethorpe Point Elementary School
6200 Frederica Road
St. Simons Island, GA. 31522-9719
(912) 638-6200
email: eproven@glynn.k12.ga.us

 

 

Mike Tennent, Superintendent
Patrick Shell, Chief Ranger
Fort Frederica National Monument
Route 9, Box 286-C
St. Simons Island, GA. 31522-9710
(912) 638-3639

 

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